books.google.co.uk - The other report is published by the U. S. State Department and is more "committed," but only as far as the national interest of the world's only su perpower is concerned. Therefore, the State Department report must be read while keeping in mind the state of U. S. relations with the countries concerned....https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_World_Geopolitics_of_Drugs_1998_1999.html?id=34M9sRromIAC&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareThe World Geopolitics of Drugs, 1998/1999

The other report is published by the U. S. State Department and is more "committed," but only as far as the national interest of the world's only su perpower is concerned. Therefore, the State Department report must be read while keeping in mind the state of U. S. relations with the countries concerned. This report is accompanied by the so-called "certification" process, whose ar bitrary character has often been stressed. For instance, Iran, a country whose determination to fight the drug transit on its territory is well-known - more than 100 Iranian law enforcement agents die every year as a restult - was removed from the "blacklist" of "decertified countries" in the spring of 1999, precisely as it was inaugurating a policy of opening itself to external influ ence, including that of the United States. In retrospect, this demonstrates that the U. S. government had decertified Iran in past years because it was viewed as an Islamic and terrorist country, not because of its supposed involvement in drug trafficking. Neither does the last State Department report explain why Haji Ayub Afridi, a major Pakistani drug baron, who had voluntarily surrendered to U. S. authorities, returned to Pakistan in 1999 after spending a mere three and a half years in a U. S. prison.

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Page 16 - The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations (PSI) took up the issue in a two-day hearing at the end of February 1991. Senator William V. Roth, Jr., the Ranking Member of the Republican minority was particularly interested for two years earlier he had discovered that "foreign mercenaries, primarily British and Israeli, were training paramilitary forces in Colombia for the drug...

Page 19 - caterpillars of the commonwealth", siphoning off US aid money and OPIC money for his own enrichment and that of his local political cronies. Insofar as it may be doubted whether any government led by VC Bird...

Page 18 - Force, which had only 92 men, and there provide training for cartel gunmen. Additionally, the school would import modern Israeli weapons - assault rifles and submachine guns - that would be sold to the cartel's students and taken back to Colombia. It was a weapons laundering operation with some training thrown in. Others involved included Vere Bird, Jr., and the head of the Antiguan Defense Force, Major Clyde Walker.

Page 17 - Both had served as mercenaries in the Angolan civil war. In 1989, the British took on another assignment, this time from the leadership of the Cali Cartel. They were to plan and lead an aerial attack on Medellin boss Pablo Escobar. They tried and failed when one of their helicopters, flown...

Page 18 - In testimony before the PSI, Geoffrey Robertson, a former Counsel to the Antigua Judicial Inquiry Commission, stated "that amongst their contacts in the Hollywood area of Miami was a man named Maurice Sarfati, an entrepreneur with close and very corrupt contacts with a number of ministers in the Antiguan...

Page 17 - The Israeli part was more complicated and started earlier. The leader was Yair Klein who had retired from the Israeli military as an officer in 1981. Three years later, in 1984, Klein started a private security firm, Hod Hahanit, which translates to Spearhead in English.

Alan A. Block is emeritus professor of crime, law and justice, and Jewish studies at Pennsylvania State University. In addition, from 1998-2001, he served as director of the Jewish studies program at Pennsylvania State University. He has written numerous books and articles on organized crime, including" All is Clouded by Desire: Global Banking, Money Laundering, and International Organized Crime, "and "Space, Time, and Organized Crime.